Joe Scarborough had long planned to propose to his MSNBC “Morning Joe” co-host Mika Brzezinski — sources said he bought the ring a month before he popped the question in the South of France.
After Page Six exclusively revealed that the on-and-off-air couple got engaged during a romantic trip to the Cap D’Antibes last weekend, sources say Scarborough carefully planned the big moment.
A source said, “Joe bought the ring for Mika a month before he proposed. He was really nervous going through airport security when they left together for the trip, because the ring was in his carry-on bag, and he worried the TSA would pull the ring box out of his bag in front of Mika. Thankfully that didn’t happen. Also he was worried about losing the ring. He did lots of checking in his bag to make sure it was still there.”
Friends said they were shocked that Scarborough managed to keep his secret for so long. One said, “Everyone knows Joe is impulsive and can’t keep a secret. It is amazing that he waited until the fourth day of the vacation to propose.”
The couple stayed at the Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc in Antibes. On the final evening of their trip, they were walking to the hotel’s famed Bellini bar when Scarborough paused. Brzezinski told Vanity Fair, “Halfway up the hill, he said he needed to sit down … I thought, Oh, poor guy, he can’t make it up the hill. His glasses were fogging up he was so nervous.”
Scarborough got down on one knee with the oval-shaped diamond ring set in platinum he’d been hiding for a month and asked her to marry him. “When I saw him on one knee, I started laughing nervously, almost hysterically,” she said. “And then he asked, and I said, ‘Absolutely.’”
There are no wedding plans yet, but they’ve already politely turned down an offer from President Donald Trump to officiate.